Chris Noth, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jason Patric Show Some Leg—And, Woohoo, More!—at Dressed to Kilt

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

There are definitely mixed opinions on what a man should wear under his kilt, as we discovered last night at the ninth annual Dressed to Kilt event at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. The annual blow-out event is organized by the Friends of Scotland, a non-profit founded by an absent Sir Sean Connery (playing golf in the Bahamas, we hear) and all proceeds benefit the Paralyzed Veterans of America and its Scottish equivalent, the Erskine Hospital of Scotland, along with the Wounded Warrior Project, which specifically provides assistance to injured veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Every year a bevy of models, celebrities and handsome manly-men work the runway in designs from established and up-and-coming tartan-tastic designers. Watching hunky guys in kilts never gets old and there's always a "flash-y" surprise in the mix. Let's just say this year was no different, but first, let's dish with the folks on the red carpet.

WARNING: Photo number two is possibly NSFW, depending on your workplace policies. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Grid View

Expand

• A peek at cast mate Jason Patric bringing up the rear.
• A final goodbye. From left to right: Jason Patric, Jim Gaffigan, Brian Cox, Chris Noth (hello) and Kiefer Sutherland
• Trump family photo
• Matthew Settle aka Rufus Humphrey shows the guys how it's done.
• Marcus Schenkenberg rocks the Scottish equestrian chic.
• A trousered Marcus Schenkenberg shows us that he definitely still has it.
• Harry Potter's Freddie rocks the S&M-updated kilt ensemble
• New York Giants Danny Ware and Ahmad Bradshaw giving us their blue steel. Love the mango roll neck, Ahmad!
• Kellie Pickler in a tartan gown and a massive fascinator.
• LX TV's George Oliphant walks the runway in his family tartan.
• Musical interlude from indie Scottish musician Paolo Nutini.
• Miss Scotland Nicola Mimnagh (middle) walks the runway.
• A couple models mix it up in low-rider kilts.

First, runway show judge, LX TV host and mult-generational Scotsman George Oliphant, dressed in his family tartan and an emerald crushed-velvet jacket, schooled us us the correct terminology for that furry man-purse that accessorizes the traditional Scottish dress. "This is called sporran. Because there are no pockets [on a kilt], so this is where you keep everything. You know, in the old days, they'd have their cell phones in here. Just like I keep mine in here." Any advice on keeping warm out there? It's quite brisk. "Make sure that you got your sporran on," he says, as he gestures to the pouch, which is centrally positioned right on his, uh, pouch. "To keep everything down."

"I'd have something to go up underneath—some kind of tights or pants," mused a good looking, strapping young man, also known as, New York Giants running back Danny Ware. "It's a little chilly outside. And some pockets to keep my wallet." This was Jason's first time ever modeling a kilt in the show, so we told him about benefits of a sporran. "I don't know about the man purse," he responded.

Jason wasn't the only kilt-donning newbie. Cutie Freddie Stroma (or the meanie Cormac McLaggen to you Harry Potter fans) was a first timer, also. He gave us some insight on a kilt-fitting. "I think what they did was they told me to go on my knees and once the bottom reaches the floor, then it's a good size," he said. "I think that's how it works." Interesting, but whoa, at first, we thought you might have been going somewhere else with that. So how does it feel to wear a kilt? "It felt strange. It felt very strange to have everything quite so loose, just hanging around there. If any wind came up that might be it."

Which begs the question—boxers or briefs, Freddie? "I'm wearing briefs and they're staying on. They're staying on because I could not afford to fall over and have any...falling over would be bad. Anything worse could not happen."

A good-humored Matthew Settle (or Rufus Humphrey to Gossip Girl fans) told us he was a bit of a diva during his kilt fitting. "It was a bit over-sized, so I said, 'Shouldn't we bring this two inches above the knee?' And they agreed," the actor joked. We think anyway. "You gotta be sexy, right?"

Before the show began, New York's first couple Donald and Melania Trump quickly breezed past the paps on the red carpet. While the Donald wasn't feeling too chatty, the Mrs. (looking super chic in a creamy cowl neck cocoon coat) did share her thoughts on the Donald in a kilt. "[He would look] great and he would show his beautiful legs that nobody knows he has," purred the super-glam Melania.

Well, when the much-anticipated runway show finally began, there were lots of beautiful legs to be seen. It was a bit slow going at first, although OG male supermodel Marcus Schenkenberg smoldered in a modern equestrian take on Scottish fashion (and later just went full-on shirtless), Matthew Settle worked the crowd by hilariously mugging and vamping in a red and cream tartan kilt-suit, country star Kelly Pickler rocked a fascinator that would make Kate Middleton jealous, Freddie Stroma looked amused while modeling a black leather and studded S&M-ish number and NY Giants player Ahmad Bradshaw (alongside Danny Ware in an eye-catching vest and jacket kilt-ensemble sans shirt) showed us that mango-orange is really his color in a biz-cazh cable-knit roll neck combo.

As we mentioned earlier, there are always some surprises and this year really killed it. The show closed out with the cast of the Broadway show The Championship Season—Chris "Mr. Big" Noth, Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Brian Cox and Jim Gaffigan—strutting out in their dashing kilt ensembles (irreverently worn with sporty footwear). Now for the big surprise: They decided to follow the traditional Scottish warrior-style of undergarment dressing (or non-dressing, rather) by going totally commando and then flashing the audience on their way out. There were some strategically placed pleats, but depending on the vantage point (not ours unfortunately), a lucky few may have been treated to a glimpse of how big Mr. Big really is.
· Dressed to Kilt [Official Site]